What’s New in Public Law

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—Robert Rybski, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw

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In this weekly feature, I-CONnect publishes a curated reading list of developments in public law. “Developments” may include a selection of links to news, high court decisions, new or recent scholarly books and articles, and blog posts from around the public law blogosphere. To submit relevant developments for our weekly feature on “What’s New in Public Law,” please email iconnecteditors@gmail.com.

Developments in Constitutional Courts

1. The Parliament of Ukraine appointed a new judge for the Ukrainian Constitutional Court, contrary to the recommendation of the Venice Commission.
2. The Supreme Court of India ruled on the right to protest, holding that prolonged dissent or protest cannot be continued in the form of occupation of public place affecting the rights of others.
3. The Polish Government published the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal restricting the right to abortion with a 3-month delay.
4. The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany dismissed a challenge to undermine the continuation of a criminal proceeding against a 77 years old defendant due to concerns in the context of persisting COVID-19 pandemic.
5. The Constitutional Court of Kuwait ordered a recount of votes in two constituencies in the December 2020 parliamentary elections.
6. A subcommittee of the US House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the shadow docket of the US Supreme Court.

In the News

1. Despite pandemic restrictions, carnival caricatures were paraded through empty streets of Duesseldorf in Germany, to promote freedom of expression. 
2. Blacked out screens, silent radio stations and black front pages of most media  in Poland marked a day-long protest against plans to introduce media ads tax modelled on the Hungarian scheme.  
3. Supreme Court of Bangladesh (High Court Division) ordered the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission to remove the content of Al Jazeera’s material “All the Prime Minister’s Men” from all online platforms.
4. Facebook introduced a news ban for its Australian users after the Australian House of Representatives passed a bill to enforce payments to publishers for using their content on external online platforms.
5. Donald Trump has been acquitted in the second impeachment proceeding in the US Senate.
6. The Governor of Montana signed a “constitutional carry” bill that, among other things, allows bearing arms within university premises.
7. The adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution regained traction.

New Scholarship

1. Tom Gerald Daly and Wojciech Sadurski (eds.) Democracy 2020. Assessing Constitutional Decay, Breakdown, and Renewal Worldwide (2020) (collecting essays on constitutional disturbances that presented globally clearly depict a raising wave of constitutional disturbances)
2. Giovanna De Minico and Oreste Pollicino (eds.) Virtual Freedoms, Terrorism and the Law (2021) (explores the thin line between freedom of expression and regulations that aim at maintaining security in the fight against terrorism in the area of digital resources)
3. Dirk Ehlers and Henning Glaser (eds.), State and Religion. Between Conflict and Cooperation (2020) (exploring relation between normative and religious system from various perspectives, including constitutional theory and constitutional law)
4. Humberto Briceno Leon, The Jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Should Outlive Defection (2020) 52 University of Miami’s Inter-American Law Review 1 (discusses jurisdictional problems of treaty defection and presents a jus cogens complementary jurisdictional model)
5. Mirjam Künkler and Tine Stein (eds.), Religion, Law, and Democracy. Selected Writings Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, Volume II (2021) (presenting to international audience selection of translated writings of Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde on law, religion and democracy, including experiences as a judge of the German Federal Constitutional Court)
6. Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, The Politics of Regulating and Disciplining Judges in Nigeria, in Richard Devlin and Sheila Wildeman (eds.) Disciplining Judges (2021). (discusses socio-political context that might be missed while studying the National Judicial Council in Nigeria).

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. Maastricht Centre for European Law invites submission for an online workshop on “EU Democracy and Rule of Law,” scheduled for June 24-25, 2021. The deadline for submission of abstracts is February 28.
2. Kyiv-Mohyla Law and Politics Journal invites submissions to its seventh edition. The deadline for submissions is March 30, 2021.
3. Comparative Constitutional Law and Administrative Law Journal (CALQ) invites submissions for its upcoming issue. The deadline for submission is March 15, 2021.
4. Irish Journal of European Law invites submissions for its 2021 Volume. The deadline for submission is March 26, 2021.
5. Vefassungsblog, the Democracy Reporting International, and the Horizon-2020 RECONNECT project organize an online symposium on “Power and Covid-19 Pandemic.” The symposium will take place on February 24, 2021.
6. Heidelberger Salon digital – a book launch conversation “Democracies Out of Sync? On Checks and Balances in EU Member States” hosted by Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in cooperation with re:constitution and Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich. Save the date: February 26, 2021, 14.00 CET.

Elsewhere Online

1. Sujit Choudhry and Asanga Welikala, Myanmar’s Military Coup D’état is Unconstitutional: How Should the International Community Respond?, IACL-AIDC Blog
2. Robin Geiß and Henning Lahmann, Data Protection in Armed Conflict, Verfassungsblog
3. Julio Rios-Figueroa, Mexico’s Constitutional Reforms: Threats to Judicial Independence from Within?, ConstitutionNet
4. Michael Hollerich, A Christian in the Office of Constitutional Judge. Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde on religion and democracy, Commonweal
5. Or Bassok and Menachem Mautner, Israeli High Court’s Pursuit of a Constitutional ‘Gospel’ Haaretz
6. Kalika Mehta, Tailoring the Jurisdiction of the ECHR. The ECtHR’s Grand Chamber Decision in Hanan v. Germany, Verfassungsblog
7. Valentina Rita Scotti, The Debate on the Istanbul Convention in Turkey: A Populist Reinterpretation of the Principle of Gender Equality, IACL-AIDC Blog